LOVE the picture and the video game play with your hoo-hoo! Really like the reasons that they give for doing the education, it's not as simple as squeeze it, there's so much more to be done.

It's a shame that the French are getting scoffed at for this by americans and canadians as it's so true that there really isn't much support in terms of getting a woman back to her pre-pregnancy self. And true, the government is paying for it but I would think that it makes subsequent pregnancies healthier and therefore less complications that the gov't pays for later on by actually taking care of its people... Imagine that.

This pregnancy I'm having incontinence issues. Yesterday was by far the worst! I couldn't stop coughing and I had to pee so bad and even though I was 2 steps away from the toilet I couldn't get to it because I was hacking (and peeing) away. After this pregnancy I will for sure be doing exercises specific for that area. The other thing that she mentioned is that doing the exercises can get you back in bed with DP sooner and I'd love for that to happen. Sex was excruciating the first year and I wonder if it had to do with my pelvic floor. We shall see... Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, it's sad that we have such cruddy postnatal care here. I know I wouldn't mind something like this for after I have this baby; I've had horrible incontinence issues with this pregnancy compared to my others, and it really is frustrating and disruptive to life.

Why isn't that available here? I mean the issue of who pays for it is one thing but if it were available even at all is would probably get more affordable over time for many even if it wasn't at first. We are so strangely prudish in America.

I think it's awesome. I watched an episode of Dr Oz, not that I care for him much, about women issues and only one woman in the audience had a guided Kegel lesson with their dr! One!! I've had it done and it's embarrassing as heck, but it's effective. Most women don't wanna know what's going on down there as long as it doesn't hurt too much or effect our daily lives, myself included at times. After my 5th things changed dramatically. But I also had 3 kids in 4yrs at that point. It wasn't pretty! Googling "I think my uterus/intestines falling out" isn't pretty either.
This program is great and I wish more women had access to post-baby physical therapy for these issues. I did some exercises for this prior to pregnancy after a car accident but doing it now without guidance isn't the same.

I think the article makes it too extreme. This kind of physical therapy does exist in the US and, for me, was covered like any other physical therapy recommended by my midwife/ob gyn. It's called pelvic floor physical therapy or women' health physical therapy, and you can find a provider here: http://www.womenshealthapta.org/find...pist/index.cfm. It was covered by my insurance and I paid my standard PT co-pay for it, about $30 a session (don't remember precisely) and it was a pretty generous number of sessions.

I did just the same exercises she mentions... biofeedback with internal sensor and computer screen, PT teaching to lift and hold, lift and hold at 50% power, etc. I didn't play any video games and had very little of the manual stimulation or assessment. My PT is also very interested in combining core strength and the transverse abdominals to work in tandem with the pelvic floor, so her vision combines some of the abdominal PT that the author describes as separate.

Interestingly, the author is also too extreme to say that this is uniquely French. I lived in Belgium (Dutch-speaking part) when my second was born and had both pre- and post-natal physical therapy. It was a standard recommendation and was largely covered by my Belgian insurance, although I may have had a small co-pay. However, the quality of both the pre- and post-natal therapy was not very good (and I went to two different therapists). I was surprised that even in a country where it was standard, it didn't guarantee a high quality therapist.

I did have the same experience as she did with my obgyn; no gown, no leaving the room, no curtain to change behind. Just take off your pants while the obgyn waited. It was funny. I also was recommended a standard 5 day hospital about a super easy vaginal birth, which I thought was over-kill and not at all a good use of national health funds. I think it would be cheaper and more effective to send women with an easy recovery home after 2 days and then pay for 2-3 home visits by a nurse/lactation consultant in the first week.

I don't know if I think this physical therapy would be a good thing to be standard in the US, mostly because not all women need it. I do think this kind of therapy should be more well-known and covered like other PT, and that obgyns should be quick to refer rather than describe Kegels in 2 minutes and consider the job done.

Really, you can get the same thing in the US, probably paid for in the same way as any physical therapy, depending on your insurance. The difference in the article is that getting the therapy appears standard in France and it seems to be fully covered. But written that plainly, there wouldn't be any article to submit to Slate.